So what’s Ted’s Take on Alex Ovechkin?
If you’re Ted Leonsis, the garrulous, very loyal owner of the Washington Capitals, what do you do with Ovie? Never mind GM George McPhee, who is in his 17th year at the same stand, and in the last year of his contract? Never mind Hall of Fame centre/coach Adam Oates, who seemed a panacea last season when he replaced the harder-edged, defensive-minded Dale Hunter but probably won’t get the Caps into the playoffs this season.
What about Ovie? What about your franchise player who just got thrown under the bus by Oates for quitting on a back-check against Dallas this week, coasting and allowing 42-year-old Ray Whitney to rip by you for the Stars’ fourth goal in the embarrassing 5-0 loss to Dallas earlier this week?
It’s becoming exceedingly clear that for all of Ovie’s goals (419 in 673 league games, plus 31 in 58 playoff matches), what does that get the Caps? Washington usually get to the post-season—they won’t this year barring a collapse by Detroit or Columbus for a wild-card spot—but even when do they qualify, they don’t get farther than the second round.
Can a leopard or an NHL winger change his spots at this stage of the game?
I don’t think so. Ovie is as Ovie does. He’s very exciting. He puts lots of fannies in the seats in Washington, something Leonsis is certainly grateful for. Ovie will likely score 50 this season which would be the fifth time he’s hit that number since his first NHL season in 2005-2006. He’ll be the only player to do that, even if he hasn’t scored an even-strength goal in 16 games, which is stupifying.

He’s -19 since Sochi, if you are into plus/minus.
This is a guy who marches to his own drummer in this, his 10th NHL season.
While he was plus 129 in his first nine seasons, he is -36 this season, on pace to be the only player who’ll lead the league in goals and have the worst plus/minus. And before you say plus/minus means nothing, I agree it’s not the stat it used to be; it’s certainly not in any analytics casebook.
But, when you are -36 and the next closest player on your own team is -22 (Marcus Johansson), then you’re not caring much about defence. Ovie’s normal centre Nick Backstrom, for instance, is -21.
His old coach Bruce Boudreau told TSN, it’s “mind-boggling” to see Ovie’s plus/minus right now. Same with no goals 5-on-5. So again, the question becomes this: will the Caps ever win with Ovie?
Can they keep truckin’ along with Ovie as their centre-piece, if a Stanley Cup is the finish line?
Will he be the one constant (he and Backstrom) while coaches come and go?
Glen Hanlon his first coach, then Boudreau, then Dale Hunter, now Oates. Maybe a fifth coach after this season, although I think Oates is a good one.
Would Leonsis ever give the green light to trading Ovechkin, who turns 29 this fall?
Since the Gretzky trade/sell to the LA Kings in 1988, we all know anybody can get dealt, although that’s Leonsis’s call, and the question is how many people would give up their tickets to games if Ovie wasn’t there. There’s 100s of people in Caps’ No. 8 jerseys at games in Washington. But, winning often trumps player loyalty and in the time Ovechkin has been with the Caps, they have won three playoff rounds in, this, his 10th year.
It’s not all his fault, of course. Is it Ovie’s fault that Mike Green isn’t anywhere near the defenceman he was a few years ago, in part because of injuries? Is it Ovie’s fault the Caps, at this time, don’t have anywhere near a good enough defence brigade, as a whole. Is it Ovie’s fault that they don’t have enough high-end top 6 guys to support him?

No, to all of those questions.
But, again I’d make some calls to see if anybody wanted Ovie’s contract and it’s obviously a deterrent for just about every team. He gets $10 million in salary for the next seven years after this one. His cap hit is $9.538 million but there’s $70 million left in salary. Mind you, at the end of the contract he’ll only be 36.

I don’t see Ovie being so in love with his homeland that he’d return to Russia as Ilya Kovalchuk did this season, saying goodbye to the NHL after 816 games and 417 goals and turning his back on the 12 years and $66.7 million left on his New Jersey Devils’ contract to play for St. Petersburg in the KHL.
But this is a major problem for the Capitals, who have the most electrifying scorer in the game (Steve Stamkos is catching up),but there doesn’t appear to be enough buy-in from Ovie to be a 200-foot player, to use the parlance of today. To sacrifice some goals to do the dirty, defensive work, too.
And those are the players who win Stanley Cups.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.